They prove what was suspected and feared: The chat messages from students at Berlin universities and from Potsdam, published by the newspaper Die Welt, paint a frightening picture of the spread of hatred of Israel and anti-Semitic stereotypes among a section of the student body.
Yes, the capital is a melting pot of all kinds of social depravity, if you look for it, but we shouldn't dismiss it. Experience shows that these kinds of chats exist at other universities as well.
I can hardly imagine the impact these hateful messages have on Jewish students who will be sitting next to these fellow students in the lecture hall again next semester.
Universities are not a reflection of society, fortunately. But the fact that, according to the "Welt" newspaper, a large proportion of chat group members are student teachers should give us pause for thought. University management is not responsible for these chats. But they do have an educational mandate; if this is not received by prospective teachers, then something is going wrong.
And the news also shows that it is indeed necessary to take consistent and early action against supposedly pro-Palestinian protests at universities. We now see, in black and white, what is behind it.
Excessive hate is also a social media phenomenon. They rarely have consequences, as the recent case of Berlin TU President Geraldine Rauch has shown. Those who perfect propaganda and incitement are successful in our platform world. This principle has not only been understood by Israel haters and Islamists but has also been internalized on the far left and far right of the political spectrum. Social reason and the middle are in danger of breaking down as a result.
This editorial was originally published in German in Jüdische Allgemeine.
